1. Field of the Invention
Odorant Compositions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many of the highly desirable odorant materials used in the perfume industry are essential oils derived from natural sources and are subject to the vagaries of natural products such as, availability in sufficient quantities, price fluctuations, variations in quality, etc. There is, therefore, a constant effort in the industry to provide substitutes for these natural products by using chemical starting materials which do not depend on the natural source.
Essential oils are made up of a number of different components which, in combination, give the desirable odor characteristic of the natural oil. It has been found, however, that even in those cases wherein the application of modern analytical and synthetic techniques allows most of the chemicals in an essential oil to be isolated, identified, synthesized and combined in the same relative amounts found in the oil, the product so produced usually lacks the "naturalness" and "lift" found in the natural oil.
The term "naturalness" refers to that quality in the natural oil which gives it a pleasant blended odor without the odor of any individual chemical "standing out" from the total bouquet of the oil. The term "lift" refers to that quality in the natural oil which gives it the initial impact and odor intensity when first perceived by the olfactory senses. Obviously, the lack of these qualities in a synthetic essential oil limits its value and commercial acceptance.
It is generally felt that these qualities, lacking in the synthetic oil but evident in the natural oil, are due to constituents present in the natural oil in minor amounts and which, in the great preponderance of cases, escape analytical detection and/or identification. While the modus operandi of such constituents is not known, occasionally a chemical is found which, when added to a synthetic essential oil, causes it to acquire the qualities of naturalness and lift. Apparently such a phenomenon occurs irrespective of the odor of such a constituent which may be desirable or undesirable in the pure form.
The N-(2-furfuryl)-pyrrole used in this invention was previously disclosed as a volatile constituent in coffee and a method for its preparation is known. (M. A. Gianturco, A. S. Giammarino, P. Friedel and V. Flanagan, Tetrahedron, 20, 2951, (1964)). The use of N-(2-furfuryl)-pyrrole in improving fragrance compositions is heretofore unknown.